in La Granjuela, in late June 1937, almost three months after the capture of the village by part of the Chapaiev Battalion, belonging to the XIII International Brigade (summing up 389 voluntary men and rather eclectic as to the nationality of its combatants - coming from a total of 21 different countries-, above all Germans, Poles, Austrian, Swiss, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech, Swedes, Danes, Yugoeslavian, French, Italian, Luxembourg, Ukrainian, Belgian, Russian, Greek, Brasilian and Spaniards, though the main core was set up by 79 Germans, 67 Poles, 59 Spaniards and 41 Austrians) on April 5, 1937. The visit had its origin in the assignment that Richard de Rochemond (Director of the European Section of Henry Luce´s The March of Time newsreel) made to Robert Capa during the latter´s stay in Paris in mid May 1937, in which he asked him and Gerda Taro to photograph and film a reenactment as faithful as possible to the real events of the fierce fight which had taken place in La Granjuela - one month and a half before this meeting in the French capital- between the Francoist troops and the voluntary combats of the Chapaiev Battalion. Therefore, both Gerda Taro (with two 35 mm rangefinder Leicas) and Capa (with a Bell & Howell Eyemo A-71 motion picture camera) headed to an area near Peñarroya, where was the headquarters of Chapaiev battalion, arriving there on June 24, 1937 and meeting Alfred Kantorowicz, the political comissar of the unit, subsequently marching to La Granjuela, a village of the Guadiato Valley area (Córdoba), to fulfill the job that Richard de Rochemont had requested them.

The pictures made by Gerda Taro capture four different types of contexts:

Some of the dwellings show holes made by bullets of different calibers, its timber beams are in the open air and a high percentage of its bricks structure is perceptible, with constant presence of a great quantity of debris on the ground reaching remarkable height and proving that their inhabitants have left them.

c) The reenactment of the onslaught of the Chapaiev men, made up by 29 photographs made by Gerda Taro and being the most well-known assortment of pictures. It begins with two photographs in which we can see some Chapaiev battalion fighters reenacting the stress moments before an attack (one of the combatatnts seems to have his left hand bandaged and is grabbing a rifle, while another one wearing a French helmet is smoking).

Russian Degtyarev DP-1928 7.62 x 54 R caliber light machine gun, sporting air refrigeration, a folding tripod, a weight of 9,3 kg and a 47 cartridge magazine, popularly known as ´sartén´ during the Spanish Civil War, boasting a horizontal configuration of the bullets.

This automatic weapon was prone to overheating and above all to get dirty, so in the aforementioned picture in which appear four combatants of the Chapaiev Battalion playing with a dog, one of them - the one with the Degtyarev DP-1928- has put it on the ground with the drum magazine leaned on it, to prevent the barrel elongated ventilation holes from being in contact with the floor and the risk that sand or dust can stick to it.

The images taken by Gerda Taro clearly reveal that the photojournalist, who works now with two different 35 mm Leicas (albeit the image aesthetics of the pictures, the low contrast of them, the abundant flare in the contrejour photographs and the apparent performance drop in borders and corners suggest that she got the pictures in La Granjuela mainly with the chromed Leica III and non coated Summar 5 cm f/2 lens featuring some scratches and cleaning marks on its delicate front element), has freed herself of the limitations inherent to the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 square inches medium format Rolleiflex Old Standard that she used until mid February 1937, has developed a good timing, moves faster and is able to get good pictures of combatants in motion and even running, managing to achieve action feeling.From the photographic reportage made by Gerda Taro in La Granjuela, six of the action pictures were chosen and published in the July 14, 1937 number of the French illustrated magazine Ce Soir, while Robert Capa delivered his 35 mm footage to Richard de Rochemond in Paris.

Currently, almost thre quarters of a century after the events, La Granjuela is a peaceful, lovely and very representative village of the Guadiato Valley (Córdoba), visited by people coming not only from Córdoba province, but also from the rest of Spain and even from some foreign countries, enticed by its quietness, the outstanding quality of its typical cuisine, its unique and famous limited crop olive oil, the hospitality of its inhabitants and many more things.

But well into the night, Photo: José Manuel Serrano Esparza

when the streets have already been empty for some hours, there are moments in which the most absolute silence begets a shiver on remembering what happened 74 years ago and thinking, not without deep thrill, that Gerda Taro and Robert Capa were here.

Copyright Text and Indicated Photos: José Manuel Serrano Esparza
Inscribed in the Territorial Registry of the Intellectual Property of Madrid